Volunteering at City Lit

Over 21 million people volunteer in the UK at least once a year – all making a big difference to individuals and communities every day from improving the environment we live in, spending time with those who may otherwise be lonely and contributing to a range of other essential services and support.

Volunteers’ Week celebrates these contributions from 1st to 7th June this year, and you can find information about events throughout the UK on the Volunteers' Week website [external website] - it also tells you how to volunteer yourself and don’t quite know where to start.

For the next academic year, we are planning to offer a range of volunteering opportunities here at City Lit. Potential volunteers will then be able to apply for a range of volunteering opportunities; these may include:

If you are interested, please leave your details below, or at the reception desk or in the student centre.

We will add your name to our volunteering mailing list and will let you know when opportunities come up.

John's story

John Sole worked with the college as a volunteer for several years and is now employed in the Learning Support team.

“My own education was affected by dyslexia and, despite numerous visits to educational psychologists when I started at secondary school, my problems went without any formal diagnosis for many years. In 2006 I became aware that one of the people I was living with volunteered at City Lit and I thought that this would be an interesting thing to do, so I began to work as a volunteer for the Progress team, supporting individual students and helping them to integrate into mainstream courses. I found the working relationships that I formed with the students to be very satisfying.

I believe that the insight that I have into learning difficulties and disability has given me a commitment to helping people to access education and, I think, this also helped me to avoid patronising the students with whom I work. I found that working in the classroom greatly improved my own literacy skills and that work in the Art team provided a useful means of maintaining and developing my studio skills. City Lit has also helped me directly with my personal development, supporting me to take my PTLLS and Maths GCSE exams and giving me other training opportunities.

Towards the end of 2010 I applied for a learning support assistant position at City Lit. I was successful! I have found that since I have been a paid worker, my position here has become an increasingly important part of my personal identity and I continue to find the personal relationships that this work entails an increasingly important part of my life.”

What our other volunteers say…

‘Volunteering has helped with my continuing education and is a useful addition to my CV.’

‘I find volunteering at the City Lit a rewarding experience. I enjoy helping to facilitate others’ learning’.

‘I was well supported in my volunteer role and it became a valuable learning experience for me.’